About CEPE

Mission

CEPE increases educators'
effectiveness through evidence-based project evaluation; local, regional
and national professional development; training, and educator resources
and research.

Who
is an Educator?

An educator is anyone who models,
demonstrates, or explains something to another. This includes parents,
childcare workers, school teachers, coaches, instructors, mentors, and trainers
of all sorts. It also includes the many people who provide information as part
of their work in museums, aquariums, zoos, observatories, science centers, fish
and wildlife preserves, forest and agricultural demonstration centers,
scouting, 4H and boys & girls clubs and public libraries. These are people
who know their content area and can relate the information to the work world.

What
is Educational Effectiveness?

How do we know when a person learns?
What does it mean for an educator to be effective, and how do we measure
effectiveness? Educator effectiveness is based on observable and measurable
learner outcomes. When we want to know if lessons have been effective, we ask
questions such as the following: What can learners do after a lesson that they
could not do before? What do learners now know and can relate and connect to
what was known before? Are they able to identify questions that remain? Along
with increased knowledge, have the learners also changed their awareness of how
the topic of study fits into the broader scheme? Do the learners have a greater
appreciation for related issues? Have the learners become critical thinkers on
the topic in question?